Internet addiction

[lightlord99]

I'm an addict too. I curse my parents for letting me use Prodigy hours a day when I was just 10 years old. I am now 24 and have never been able to find anything that holds my attention as well as chat rooms/forums.

 

[belarki]

This thread is interesting. I used to have a huge fucking WoW addiction, but I dated a guy who played with me, so it was OK for a time. He wanted to quit playing, I still played and it put a strain on our relationship.

Forums, working on the Internet and all that jazz has put a strain on my last relationship. It sucks. I was accused of being cold and never wanting to be intimate. There were reasons why I was like that, but for the most part, I preferred Internet company to listening to his pothead rants.

The WoW addiction was the worst though. It wasn't until he left that I finally woke up and quit playing.

I was in a pretty similar situation. Definitely addicted to WoW for a few months; living with my girlfriend and we were both hooked. I was also taking way too much speed at the time and practically became a hermit due to depression and social anxiety, neither of which helped. It wasn't until we broke up about 3 years ago and I moved on that I quit WoW and haven't touched another online game since. Those games are designed to be addictive though and some of the developers employ cognitive psychologists to ensure they are. The social aspects of those games make them worse too as while you're interacting with people you can half fool yourself into thinking you're doing something constructive and meaningful and not just wasting time playing a silly game.

As for general internet addiction, I spend so much of my time in front of a computer during the day that I can barely bring myself to use one for anything other than a jukebox by the time I get home. When there's nothing to do at work though I'm also a chronic "refresh" button masher hoping something new and interesting will pop up to occupy my time...